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Finally got a chance to play Artifact. It should be mentioned that the game has a $20.00 USD upfront cost to start. This includes 2 Starter Decks and 10 Packs that you receive after two tutorial games. You can choose not to accept them after the tutorial and ask for a refund, but once you accept them their disclaimer firmly lets you know there will be no refund. Packs cost about $1.99 USD per. You are able to buy and sell singles for steam cash in the game so there is an actual secondary market. From research it looks as if a good competitive deck will cost about $70.00 USD to make which isn't nothing when you compare it to Magic.

The game plays like a MOBA with three lanes. Each lane has a tower that you are trying to kill and each tower houses some kind of ancient life force. You win the game by destroying two different towers or by destroying a tower and then killing the that life force that is exposed afterwards.

Each round goes through the three lanes in steps. You play cards and do combat in one lane, and then the next, and so on. In order to play "styled" cards to a lane, you must have a hero of that "style" actively in the lane you're playing the card to. When heroes are killed they are sent to the "fountain" to heal. They basically set out the whole next turn, and then the turn after you can redeploy them to a lane.

They even included purchasing upgrades and items. As the turn progresses you can earn gold by doing things like killing units or heroes. This gold is used at the end of the turn before the next round to purchase equipment that can be used to enhance heroes and heal allies.

The game has a lot of complexity but is organized well so that it doesn't completely overwhelm you. You need to make sure you have the right type of allies in your lanes so you can play the cards you will need to attack and defend in that lane. Essentially, you're keeping up with three board states but because the game does a good job of holding it together, you don't realize it.

The game has casual and expert formats that include constructed and draft formats. You can play freely with your friends and community tournaments can be created and joined as well. These tournaments can be set up to your liking to include formats such as "commons only" and can be swiss or single elimination.

I'll let you guys know more as I get through it but this is something I'm definitely going in 100% for now.